According to medical experts, such conjoined twins, whose skins and internal organs are fused together, are rare.
Sion Hospital's Paediatric Surgery department, on June 16, successfully separated conjoined twins after a delicate surgery. The operation was conducted six days after their birth. Born to a Chembur couple on June 10, the girls were joined at the chest and lower abdomen, and shared a liver.
According to medical experts, such conjoined twins, whose skins and internal organs are fused together, are rare.
At birth, the babies jointly weighed 4.9 kilos.
"These twins were connected from the breastbone to the waist. 33% of all conjoined twins are connected in this way. Such twins can share a liver, gastrointestinal or genitourinary organs. In this case, the twins shared a liver, and one of the twin's intestines was going into the other," said Dr Paras Kothari, head of the Paediatric Surgery department at Sion hospital.
The case was detected when the twins' mother came in for sonography. She was in the seventh month of pregnancy. The mother, who already has two sons, had to be taken up for emergency surgery. The twins were, after birth, shifted to paediatric care. After taking the family's consent, the decision to operate on them was taken.
Tests such as CT scan were conducted in order to find out which organs were shared by the girls.
"Normally, surgery for separation is done after three months of birth. In this case, the girls were doing fine. We decided to take them up for surgery. We used a special instrument which burns the tissue and helps to cut it. This leads to minimal bleeding," said Dr Kothari.
Since the survival rate in such cases are poor, the twins were closely monitored for a week after the operation. "Both are doing fine and are recovering well," said Dr Kothari.
"Surgical separation of conjoined twins needs extreme precision and care. It is a very delicate and risky procedure. We are proud that this rare feat was successfully achieved by our team of doctors," said Dr Suleman Merchant, dean of LTMG Sion Hospital.
This is the second separation of conjoined twins conducted at the hospital in a year.
In 2013, conjoined twins subsequently named Riddhi and Siddhi were born to a couple from Raigad. The twins were attached at the hip at a 90 degree angle, because of which it would have been impossible for them to walk; the condition also hampered their growth. They were separated in January last year, and have since been recuperating in a special room of the paediatric ward in the hospital.
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